Lincoln City are staring history in the face as they look set to become the first English Football League club to play six consecutive away games.
Following Saturday’s clash with Stevenage at the LNER Stadium, the Imps could be forced to travel a total of 1,112 miles and a minimum of 540 minutes before returning to home soil.
Lincoln are currently scheduled to play five consecutive away games in League One, the FA Cup and the EFL Trophy.
However, this run could be extended by a further game should the visit of Doncaster Rovers be postponed due to international call-ups.
EFL and Premier League rules state that in any block of five league games, teams should have two home games and three away games or vice versa.
Although with the already postponed trip to Bradford City during the last international break rearranged for a Tuesday, October 28.
The Imps would still conform to that rule if the visit of Rovers wasn’t postponed during the next international break.
However, when you also introduce a trip to Barnsley in the EFL Trophy and Salford City in the FA Cup it is looking quite likely that the Imps won’t return home until November 29.
The club this morning announced that Saturday’s visit of Stevenage will be the clubs official remembrance fixture showing the magnitude of time until the side’s next home game.
The only other side that have ever seen such a feat were Barcelona when they faced eight away games in a row in the 2020/21 season.
However, the Imps are also looking likely to be joined by Plymouth Argyle in breaking this record who have an identical pattern of fixtures in the lead up to the next break.
So, given that two clubs look set to break a 137-year record, does it just point to greater scheduling issues that need to be fixed by the EFL before it causes too much damage?
In the best-case scenario, it is still going to be 29 days between home games for both the Imps and Argyle.
However, it is looking more likely to be 43 days without a home fixture on the assumption that the visit of Doncaster Rover is postponed.
The club have today released ticket details for the visit of Grant McCann’s side but that doesn’t change much given that the club can’t plan for players getting international call-ups.